Furman Brown has spent over a decade figuring out how to design a better school. As a first-year teacher in South Central Los Angeles in the early 1990s, he got a taste of what was wrong with the traditional public school model: It was not designed to serve students "or" teachers well. Convinced there was a better way to organize and…

"NSDC Policy Points" is a newsletter published by the National Staff Development Council (NSDC). This issue of "NSDC Policy Points" features schools that practice effective professional development. Included in this newsletter are: (1) Surprise, Arizona: Coaches support classroom improvements; (2) Loveland, Colorado:…

The Language for Professional Communication in Accounting project has changed teaching practice in a linguistically and culturally diverse postgraduate accounting program at Macquarie University in Australia. This paper reflects on the project's interdisciplinary and collaborative approach to diversity in the classroom by tracing its growth and…

This study explored the development of a community of learners through a professional development program to improve teachers' views of nature of science (NOS) and teaching practice. The "Views of Nature of Science" questionnaire and interviews were used to assess teachers' conceptions of NOS three times over the course of the study. Notes and…

As a school library media specialist in a public high school, the author seeks opportunities that will increase her knowledge base and skill level in order to positively influence the learning that takes place in her school. The author recently returned from such an opportunity when she participated in the Toyota International Teacher Program in…

Background/Context: Although teachers' core instructional beliefs are difficult to accurately measure, they provide a framework for understanding the thinking that underlies important curricular and pedagogical decisions made in the classroom. Previous research has primarily used self-report to study teacher beliefs, but self-report is better for…

A diverse range of social structures, for instance teacher teams, professional communities and teacher learning communities, are established to advance collaboration among teachers. In Norway, Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams (ITTs) have become a common way of organising teachers in schools, recommended in a national curriculum reform in 1997. This…

This article explores the cultivation of collegial trust as a central feature of the capacity-building work of 11 high school principals, nominated for their expertise with capacity building. This qualitative study examined interview data and school documents collected over 18 months. Principals regarded trust as critical and were motivated to…

The purpose of this research is to share strategies and techniques used by highly qualified educators and experts in the field of education and instruction. Differentiated instruction is one of the most common terms used in education. It is also the key to teaching students with multiple or a wide range of disabilities. Quality classroom…

Coteaching strategies have been implemented in many of the inclusion math classrooms in an attempt to improve the achievement of students. Math achievement continues to be a concern as reported by the National Mathematics Advisory Council in 2007. Educators and previous research reported that coteaching does not improve student achievement. The…

Career academies, schools within schools that concentrate on career fields, require the intentional efforts of teachers working collaboratively and sharing best practices to increase students' achievement and employability. Little is known of the perceptions of career academies' teachers, however, as they attempt to make changes in practice. The…

Change in higher education, as manifested in curriculum reform, can be particularly difficult as the structures of academia, such as rank and tradition, retard the process. Two recent reports from the Modern Language Association (MLA) strive to address needed curricular adaptations and offer a roadmap of considerations for modifications. The 2007…

The Partnership for Reform in Secondary Science and Mathematics (PRiSSM) is a three-year project that targeted mathematics and science teachers in middle and high schools from six districts in southwest Washington. Consistent with NSDC (2009) recommendations for professional development, PRiSSM involved collaborative teacher teams in reflecting on…

In this paper, the authors address the question: what are skills, knowledge and professional dispositions that U.S. co-teachers need to balance the seemingly competing mandates of NCLB and IDEIA in order to prepare teachers for the classrooms of today and tomorrow? Based on the results of two recent studies that focused on secondary co-teacher…

Teacher educators need tools to help them think about teacher learning, to design activities and programs that foster it, and to assess the results of their work with preservice and in-service teachers. In this article, in order to improve the conceptual tools available for the design and study of teacher education, the author teases apart…